Patti Smith Would Have Cast Kristen Stewart as Herself, Robert Pattinson as Robert Mapplethorpe, in Biopic

Consider how Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson’s careers may have been different if, instead of starring as lovers in the Twilight franchise, their breakout roles had been as lovers in a punk-rock biopic instead. If only Patti Smith had written her 2010 best-selling memoir, Just Kids—about her complex relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe—earlier, that could have been a possibility. Discussing the book, which she is currently adapting for the screen, Smith told Entertainment Weekly whom she might have cast as herself and Mapplethorpe a few years ago: “I remember the very first time I saw Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson together, when they were younger, and I thought, Those two kids could have easily played us when they were first starting. There’s something in his eyes. And Robert [Mapplethorpe] was also a bit shy, and a bit stoic. Kristen has a very special quality. She’s not conventionally beautiful, but very charismatic.”

But because the film, which she is writing with Oscar-nominated screenwriter John Logan (Gladiator,The Aviator, Hugo), would center on the couple when they were around 20, Smith has shifted her attention to newer talent. “We were unknowns, and I think it should be unknowns in the film, and young,” she explains, adding, “I love Mia Wasikowka. I love the girl who plays Hannah—Saoirse Ronan. She’s brilliant. The depth of that girl. There’s a lot of interesting actresses and actors for any project. It’s a subject I like to think about.”